Jonesville's Ballinger wins regional championship

Monday

Feb 18, 2013 at 9:00 AM

By Ed Patinoed.patino@hillsdale.netHUDSON — Four county wrestlers are marching on to The Palace.Jonesville's Carter Ballinger captured a regional championship and three others became state qualifiers Saturday at the Division 4 individual regional tournament at Hudson High School.Ballinger will be joined by Jonesville teammate Jonathan Rodriguez, Reading standout Jarret Wolford and Hillsdale's Kevin Curby at the Individual State Tournament. The event takes place Feb. 28 through March 2 at The Palace of Auburn Hills.The top four placers in each weight class qualified for the state tournament. Ballinger won the 125-pound regional title, improving his season record to 41-1. Wolford placed second and Curby took third in the 160-pound weight class, while Rodriguez was fourth in the 189-pound division.Ballinger went 3-0 on the day, with each victory coming by pinfall. After defeating Sand Creek's Kyle Lakatos and Addison's Collin Haag in the first two rounds, Ballinger pinned Hudson's Mason Lopinski in 3:47 to claim his first career regional title.Rodriguez went 2-2 and qualified for states at 189 pounds. He opened with a 15-11 decision over Sand Creek's Charlie Robertson, then fell to Addison's Josh Betts. Rodriguez pinned Adam Lammers (Springport) in 2:42 to clinch his spot at states before dropping a 9-7 decision to Robertson to close the day. Rodriguez is 25-9 on the season."Carter and Jonathan wrestled with some extreme determination all day long," Jonesville coach Mickey Rowe said. "All of our guys wrestled extremely good, even the kids that didn't make it out of regionals. They just had some very good competition to go against."Wolford went 2-1 and placed second at 160 pounds. He pinned Tyler Duvall in 50 seconds then scored an 8-1 decision over Nick Garza (Sand Creek). Wolford suffered an injury in the final match against Springport's Jacob Cooper and lost by default.Curby went 3-1 in the bracket to qualify for states. After pinning Garrett VanSickle (Adrian Madison) in 1:36, Curby lost a close match to Cooper. He rebounded by pinning Ray Neal (East Jackson) in 2:55 and defeating Garza 2-1 in the third-place match.Several other county wrestlers competed in the tournament. Jonesville's Michael Iler went 1-2 in the 103-pound weight class, while Pittsford's Glen Combs finished sixth in the 140-pound division. Joseph Rodriguez competed in the 145-pound bracket for Jonesville and Hillsdale's Joe Munger went 1-2 in the 215-pound class. Nate Boardman (Hillsdale) and William Corbin (Jonesville) both wrestled in the heavyweight division.